Federal agents searched Gracie Mansion early Thursday morning, hours after reports emerged that Mayor Eric Adams had been indicted following a monthslong federal corruption investigation.
According to City Hall, federal agents seized an electronic device from the mayor Thursday. It remains unclear what else authorities took.
“Federal agents appeared this morning at Gracie Mansion in an effort to create a spectacle (again) and take Mayor Adams phone (again). He has not been arrested and looks forward to his day in court,” Alex Spiro, Adams' attorney, said.
“They send a dozen agents to pick up a phone when we would have happily turned it in,” Spiro added.
The New York Times reported that indictment remained sealed as of Wednesday night. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan said it will hold a press conference at 11:30 a.m. Thursday to unveil "significant public corruption charges."
The unsealing of the indictment will mark the first time a New York City mayor has been criminally charged while in office.
In a statement provided to NY1 Wednesday night, Adams said, “I always knew that If I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became. If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”
Soon after, the mayor released a separate video statement saying in part, “If I am charged, I know I am innocent. I will request an immediate trial so that New Yorkers can hear the truth.”
The indictment marks a stunning fall for Adams, a former police captain who won election nearly three years ago to become the second Black mayor of the nation’s largest city on a platform that promised a law-and-order approach to reducing crime.